Children can easily snap together 100 rugged plastic pieces to form these poseable creatures: Blue Crab, Dimorphodon, Horse, Sea Lion, Conure Parrot, Hadrosaur, African Elephant, Swallowtail Butterfly, Bull Trout, and Platypus. Or, they can morph and interchange pieces to make various fantasy creatures. Extra pieces and an educational booklet are included with the reusable tub. “Zoomorphs has used PVC in almost every piece. It has a much softer and warmer (emotionally) feel than typical hard plastic. We are also the only animal-only building toy ever created,” president Mark McFarland of River Dolphin Toys told TDmonthly. Zoomorphs has spread through the specialty toy market based almost solely on word of mouth. From around 50 stores back in 2005, Zoomorphs can now be found in almost 1,100 gift and toy stores. The Deluxe tub sets "are opening up a whole new market for us — the educational market," said McFarland. Retailers are again expecting the new Zoomorph set to be as successful as the smaller sets were last Christmas. Launch date: October 2006.

Children can create Illuma-Bot any way they want. This 105-piece set includes unique pieces for innovative building, including a remote-controlled infrared motor with a 25-foot range, a chrome robot head with flashing lights, dome lights, detachable claws, a large light gear and more. Color-coded instructions for building four motorized models are included, or children can design their own creatures. The set is compatible with any authentic Gears! Gears! Gears! building set. It was named one of the Top 100 Best Children’s Products of 2006 by Dr. Toy. Launch date: January 2006.

This construction set can be used to make a variety of structures that work with a battery-powered motor box. The helicopter propeller spins and features firing action, the spider crawls, and the bumper car moves forward and backward. The set includes step-by-step building instructions for three models, along with other construction ideas. This product comes with 607 pieces and requires 6 AA batteries (not included). It was named one of the Top 100 Best Children’s Products of 2006 by Dr. Toy. Launch date: August 2006.

Touted as the premier manipulative for spatial visualization and learning, this building block playset can be used to teach art, architecture, design, geometry and problem solving. It was voted a top-ten educational toy by NBC’s Today Show and is a winner of the Oppenheim Gold Award. Based on fundamental shapes of nature, these blocks work with existing magnetic "stick and ball" systems, yet have longer, more diversified play value. The line includes Pyra Puzzle, My First MagneBlocks, MagneBlocks Early Years, Buildex, and Gigantex. “Each of the nine unique block shapes have color-coded magnetic polarity, which can provide a challenge for solving specific shapes, or it can be used for purely abstract, creative construction, resulting in an addictive play quality for all ages,” Warren Scott Fentress, president of Geometix International, told TDmonthly. Launch date: 2005 (original); January 2007 (new block shapes and new packaging).

In this beginner’s version of the classic wooden building set, the pieces are big, but are specifically designed for little hands. It also comes in “School” and “Farm” versions.
— Lincoln Logs was among the best-selling classic toys for Sylvia Pudtice, co-owner of Giggles for Kids in Suwanee, Ga. She added, “What makes them so popular is that mothers and grandmothers like them, so they buy their kids something they had as a child.”
— Lincoln Logs was also a best-selling classic for Roberta Kennedy, owner of Abracadabra Toys in Greenville, N.C.
— Seven of 27 retailers told TDmonthly that Lincoln Logs was a classic best seller. Most said that the toy’s success was because of the ability of parents and grandparents to pass on the joy of the product to younger generations.

This 202-piece pack contains 112 bars in an equal mixture of seven rainbow colors, 64 spheres and 26 tripods, which are new to the line. The educational toy features fascinating magnetic capabilities and can help improve children’s problem-solving skills. It also appeals to professionals as a stress reducer, and can help elderly people who have trouble with motor skills. The permanent carrying case is available in four color options and features a magnetic locking system and insert holder. Launch date: October 18, 2006.

Intermediate and advanced builders can use the latest specialized K’NEX parts to building the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Chrysler Building and other structures from around the world. Experienced builders can create everything from bridges to monuments with the rods, connector pieces, and new flexi-rods and flexi-panels. A battery operated motor puts models in motions, and the set comes with a storage case. Launch date: Fall 2006.

This square wooden box holds planks in six distinctive Kapla colors, with 40 planks of each color.

280 planks in natural wood with Art Book. Includes a booklet of building techniques with 40 illustrations.

1000 planks in natural wood. Includes a booklet of building techniques with 40 illustrations.

Dado will engage your imagination and help develop a keen eye for design, color, shape, size, space, balance, proportion and composition. Constructed horizontally, vertically or nested together, Dado invites unlimited visual spatial development and problem solving through design-centered play. Dado features ten cubes, scaled from 1” to 5”. This game is "self-expression revealed through a contemporary palette of play, " Kathy Lorkovic, at Fat Brain Toys, told TDmonthly. This product has won numerous awards, including a 2007 National Parenting Center Seal of Approval Award, a Spring 2007 Dr. Toy Best Product Award, a 2007 iParenting Media Excellent Products Award and a Creative Child Preferred Choice Award. Launch date: September 1, 2006.
— “Dado Cubes forms the foundation of a series of design-centered educational toys,” offered Mark Carson, developer and president of Fat Brain Toys. Dado is “that rare toy that combines intuitive fun with fine design. Equally rare is its ability to entertain young and old alike,” he added. “Beyond Dado, we have a number of products in development that have been inspired by true educational research.”

Past Videos: Toy Fair 2007

According to Valtech Co., Magna-Tiles were inspired by Pythagoras of Samos (560-480 BC), an important historical mathematician. (Perhaps you recall the Pythagorean Theorem from high school.) If this lofty inspiration doesn’t impress you, perhaps the design of the magnetic tiles themselves will. While using the tiles to build various constructs, children will also be developing familiarity with geometric shapes, which will lay a strong foundation for advanced mathematics, such as geometry and calculus. This product has no equal, Michael Ziegenhagen, owner of Playmatters in Cleveland, told TDmonthly. "It's used in some schools to teach geometry and spatial reasoning," he added.
— Two of 50 retailers who spoke with TDmonthly in spring 2008 singled out this item as the best-selling construction toy in their stores.
— “We're constantly selling Magna-Tiles. This is a weekly seller, and they're even high end,” said Peggy Sebert, owner of Becky & Me Toys in Glenview, Ill., during an April 2009 survey of 49 retailers on their best-selling construction toys.
— “We sell the Magna-Tiles from Valtech really well on a consistent basis,” Kim Emigh, VP of e-commerce at Growing Tree Toys in State College, Pa., told TDmonthly of her store’s top-selling construction items in spring 2009.

This building set features three-dimensional, brightly colored square- and triangle-based pyramids with super-powerful magnets safely affixed on all sides. Kids can watch the permanently attached magnets rotate to their attraction position on contact, creating instantaneous connection. It also includes 24 tubes with affixed magnets on each end. The combination of the three shapes allows builders to create a magnitude of geometric and inventive structures.

This open-ended, versatile set is a Winner of a NAPPA Honors Award (2006) in the Toys, Ages 3-4 category. Toysie Snappers introduce kids to the concepts of linking, 2-D building and patterns. Eighty large, lightweight, interlocking tiles with smooth, round edges are perfect for small hands to handle. The set is accompanied by 20 easy-to-follow patterns on large activity cards. Toysie Snappers are easy to put together and take apart. This developmental toy helps improve motor, visual and spatial skills, and encourages creativity and conceptual thinking. This product is ideal for the specialty market because it is "developmental and educational," President Olga Ousherovitch of Toys i.e. told TDmonthly.

The Magbots 4x4 Racer uses a unique magnetic building system, with real magnetic power to make each piece interlock securely. Kids can watch a 4x4 Racer come to life with more than 24 specially molded pieces.

The Magbots F1-Racer uses a unique magnetic building system, with real magnetic power to make each piece interlock securely.  Kids can watch the F1-Racer come to life with over 22 specially molded (46 total) pieces.  The F1 Racer comes with step-by-step instructions to make building easier.

The Classroom/Competition kit is the perfect group learning tool. Thirty identical balsa & paper planes, plus 30 student booklets/instructions and two teachers guides complete the package. Can be completed in one classroom session.

The first in the Smithsonian Milestone Series, this six-model kit contains the early pioneers of flight. The plane each model is based on resides in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

The Giant Wright Flyer is one of the few flying replicas. Sturdy and powered with an electric winder, even the Wright Brothers would be impressed.

Six of the world’s most famous aerobatic teams are represented in this super large gift box. Easy to fly both indoors and out.

Two powerful seaplanes with an electric winder. These beauties land on water just like the real thing.

Three colorful rubber band powered gliders coupled with an electric winder. Flights nearly 100 yards are possible.

20th Century U.S. airplanes in vivid colors. These are the planes that made aviation history. Paper and balsa gliders with outstanding performance.

Six jet planes that look terrific and fly like no other gliders.
— “Whitewings from A G Industries is a classic flyer for ages 7 and up. I think it’s because it’s more realistic looking than other products and kids get to build it themselves,” Jordan Walden, manager of Finnegan's Toys and Gifts in Portland, Ore., told TDmonthly.
— Syd Clarke, owner of Ali-Cat in Carrboro, N.C., told TDmonthly in a November 2011 survey that they sell about a dozen of these each month, as long as the weather's nice.

These giant, interlocking, unique, soft blocks are ideal for small hands. The lightweight, incredibly durable and washable blocks are also colorful and nontoxic, and guarantee hours of safe and constructive play. The basic block dimensions are 4.5’’ X 4.5’’ X 3.5’’.